Canadian initiative seeks ouster of US ambassador

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(The Center Square) – After years of border policies that facilitated a record number of illegal border crossers and crime from Canada creating US national security concerns, Canadians are blaming the Trump administration for what they say are diplomatic failures. 

Canadians are demanding that Pete Hoekstra be removed as U.S. Ambassador to Canada. The action comes after nearly two years of trade, tariff and border security conflicts between the Trump administration and Canadian authorities. 

As of August 17, more than 220,000 Canadians have signed a petition sponsored by Green Party MP Elizabeth May to remove Hoekstra. The petition claims he’s “repeatedly made public statements undermining the Canada-U.S. diplomatic relations,” including characterizing Canada’s 2025 election outcome as "anti-American" and his support of President Donald Trump's call to annex Canada as the 51st U.S. state. 

The idea of annexing Canada is not unique to Trump. It dates to before America’s founding. General George Washington’s attempts to annex Canadian states were unsuccessful. The Continental Congress’s attempt through the Articles of Confederation was unsuccessful. An 1866 congressional annexation attempt was also unsuccessful. The likelihood of annexation, requiring Canadian voter approval and Congressional approval, is zero.    

The petition also criticizes Hoekstra for “being linked to a Michigan-based voter identification app used by the Alberta separatist Centurion Project, while claiming no knowledge of its use.” Hoekstra previously represented Michigan in Congress from 1993 to 2011. He was U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands during the first Trump administration.

The petition targets the Alberta Prosperity Project, which it says met with U.S. State Department officials three times between April 2025 and January 2026. Unlike in the U.S., Albertans, and all Canadians, do not have First Amendment protections. 

The petition also characterizes the action as “U.S. diplomatic interference in Canadian unity” and directs a “parliamentary committee to review U.S. diplomatic interference in Canadian domestic affairs.”

The APP, a non-partisan initiative, is seeking to unite Albertans to support sovereignty. Alberta, Canada’s largest provincial economy per capita, is advocating for oil and gas exploration and exports, expansion of First Nations rights, among other measures, which it says have been stifled by the Canadian government. It’s seeking to break away from Canada.

The petition to remove Hoekstra calls on the Canadian parliament to “formally declare Pete Hoekstra persona non grata and request his removal as U.S. Ambassador to Canada” and to affirm that his conduct is “inconsistent with the Vienna convention on Diplomatic Relations.” The Vienna Convention allows a country to strip diplomatic immunity of non-citizens. 

Only the U.S. president can remove a U.S. ambassador from office. The president also has the authority to expel foreign diplomats from the U.S.

Canadians continue to sign the petition after Hoekstra has posted on social media what he says are signs of progress on the diplomatic front. This includes cross border security efforts related to drug interdiction, World Cup security and Canadian and American business partnerships. 

Hoekstra has also called for unity in Canada after another antisemitic attack occurred in Montreal. While Canada has been battling Islamic terrorism threats, which are spilling into the U.S., antisemitic attacks have increased.

Hate crimes targeting Jews increased from 492 in 2021 to 788 last year, according to the latest Canadian government data. Jewish schools, businesses and temples are regular targets of shootings and bomb threats, according to the data.

Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism at the U.S. State Department, earlier this month traveled to Ottawa to address the issue. He said he arrived “a day after our consulate was attacked with gunfire, (two) Jewish stores were attacked in Toronto – and yet the response seems to be muted,” the Toronto Star reported. “The levels of antisemitism being seen here in Canada are rivalling the 1933 levels in Germany. And in America we were also having that same problem, and we are confronting it on a daily basis.”

Prime Minister Carney has lamented that Canadian Jews are facing “a surge of antisemitism not seen in the post war period.” He said that more than two-thirds of hate crimes committed in Canada last year were directed toward Jews. In response, six new laws have been enacted to bolster public safety and combat antisemitism and an additional $75 million has been directed toward security efforts, he said. 

The petition disclaimer clarifies, “There is no obligation on the part of the House of Commons or any Member of Parliament to authorize the publication of an e-petition or to present an e-petition or a paper petition to the House of Commons.” 

“An e-petition requires 500 signatures to be tabled in the House of Commons. Once 500 signatures have been collected, the Government must table a response within 45 calendar days,” Samara Centre Canada explains. 

MP May is expected to present the petition to parliament in the fall.  

According to a recent Angus Reid Institute poll, 45% of Canadians have a positive view of Americans; 79% have a negative view of Trump. 

“The feelings are not mutual for Americans,” the institute says, 79% of Americans have a favorable view of Canadians, according to the data.